Materials Engineering of Efficient Solar Fuels

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The long-term objective of the research program is to engineer a technologically competitive class of earth abundant, low cost, sunlight stable and non-toxic photocatalyst materials that can generate solar fuels using an artificial photosynthetic process akin to the way plants and some bacteria use sunlight to transform carbon dioxide and water through photosynthesis. Such materials can be used to engineer the 'artificial leaf' analogue of a solar panel that converts sunlight to storable hydrocarbon fuel as opposed to electricity.******This program of research will focus on photothermal/photochemical catalysis and consider the optimal combination of materials properties to enable fast, selective and efficient photo-transformation of carbon dioxide and water to storable and transportable hydrocarbon fuels such as carbon monoxide, methane or methanol. Gas-phase light-assisted reduction of carbon dioxide is a practical option and the focus of this research, since gas phase processes can be easily scaled and integrated with existing chemical and petrochemical industry infrastructure.******Despite a significant amount of research effort worldwide, the mechanistic details of photothermal catalysis remain to be clarified for different classes of materials and supports in order to achieve industrial relevance. A high-resolution environmental scanning transmission electron microscope (ETEM) will be customized for microscopy/spectroscopy of nanostructured catalysts. A custom light port for concentrated solar illumination of specimens coupled with the capability for in situ gas reaction at variable temperatures will be implemented for novel fundamental characterization studies of the rate-limiting localized structural and electronic transitions operative in nanostructured photocatalysts at atomic resolution. This type of experimental setup and approach is unique in the world and thus will realize novel insight into the operative mechanisms controlling photocatalysis. By identifying the key mechanistic factors which underpin the photothermal effect that promotes catalytic carbon dioxide reduction reactions, it will prove possible to design and synthesize nanoscale catalysts with compositions and structures, chemical and physical properties that serve to maximize the rate of reduction of gaseous carbon dioxide to value-added chemicals and fuels, using both the heat and light from sunlight. ******If this approach to utilization and valorization of carbon dioxide could be developed at industrially significant rates, efficiencies and scales and made economically competitive with fossil-based chemicals and fuels, then carbon dioxide refineries envisioned in the future would be able to contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, ameliorate climate changes, provide energy security and enable protection of the environment.